Countess of Cons: The Story of a Gilded Age Grifter - Hardcover

After losing everything in a scandalous divorce, Catherine Seeley refuses to disappear. Each time her carefully constructed life collapses, she reinvents herself through new names, daring schemes, and even a borrowed title-returning to deception despite arrests, public exposure, and imprisonment.

Drawn from years of original genealogical research, Countess of Cons tells the extraordinary story of one of the Gilded Age's most audacious confidence women. Using court records, newspaper accounts, census records, city directories, and other historical documents, Deborah S. Holman reconstructs Catherine's remarkable life beyond the sensational headlines.

More than the story of an infamous grifter, Countess of Cons explores reinvention, ambition, family loyalty, and the unintended consequences of one woman's choices. Readers will look beyond Catherine's crimes to discover the complex woman behind them-and the lasting impact her actions had on everyone drawn into her orbit.